[jgys]

I have slightly more than zero knowledge of networking and would like to remedy this.

You seem convinced it’s not black magic, so recommend a book/mooc/resource that’ll prove it. :-P

[DrPhish]

This will explain the basics of LANs in a fun, but very thorough way: https://www.amazon.com/All-New-Switch-Book-Switching-Technol...

And this one will fill out your knowledge on the routing side, although it is rather dry: https://www.amazon.com/Network-Routing-Algorithms-Architectu...